Headington Headlines #25

TonyOX3

Some of my earlier posts have gone out of sequence. Sorry for any confusion while I try to fix things.

Meanwhile, here is my round-up of local news for the week 8 – 14 August —

In one sense it’s been a quiet week for Headington news. In another sense, Headington had more twitter mentions in two days than in a normal year. Something to do with rioting, it seems. Anyway, while false rumours of trouble in Oxford swirled and raged around the internet the real-life city stayed fairly quiet.

Police were called to reports of an arson attack on Monday night at McDonald’s in London Road, Headington shortly after midnight. Three people have been arrested. Police were also called to a car fire in Barton Road, Barton after a black VW Polo was set alight.

Prompted by the actual and threatened public disorder Thames Valley Police (@ThamesVP) split out a series of local twitter accounts. Oxford City police started tweeting as @TVP_Oxford and joined a number of other local tweeters in trying to calm nerves and sort out truth from rumour.

Other newcomers to twitter were The Masons Arms in Headington Quarry @TheMasonsArmsHQ and the Manor Surgery @ManorSurgery

The Headington shark’s owner @Bill_Heine celebrated its 25th anniversary on 9 August with a street party. Local dignitaries mingled with locals to honour the occasion. The story of the shark. Pictures from the party. And my own picture:

@sharksandlasers and a website “The Dorsal Fin” provided more unexpected coverage of the event.

The official opening of Bury Knowle Park play area will be in a month’s time, according to the Oxford Mail.

Active topics on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum this week:

  • potential rioting and advised closing
  • Old Road campus application called in
  • Dogs and Smoking in the childrens play area.
  • Subway under Green road roundabout

I try to cover news from the OX3 postcode in Headington and out as far as Barton, Sandhills and Risinghurst (see map). To feed into next week’s summary you can comment on this article, or tweet either with the hashtag #ox3 or @mentioning @TonyOX3.

Headington Headlines #24

TonyOX3

As the financial world went into meltdown (again) and people everywhere were dusting off their houmus and taramasalata joke, here in Headington well-wishers were jumping the gun to announce the 25th birthday of the Headington Shark.
In other news for the week 1 – 7 August —

The East Area Planning Committee gave planning permission to Oxford University’s plans for two large new buildings on their land next to Old Road. A couple of days later it was announced that the decision is to be ‘called in’ for review.

It was confirmed that Feltham Construction will shortly start work on building flats on the remaining Manor Hospital land.

McKenna Plant Hire is reported to be intending to submit a planning application to re-open Woodeaton Quarry as a site to dump soil and clay. Barton residents are gearing up to oppose the plan which would mean a significant increase in heavy lorries along Bayswater Road.

The landlords of the Ampleforth Arms in Risinghurst who lost their daughter to meningitis held a charity event on Saturday.

Thrive Barton’s funding was reported to be under threat.

The JR Hospital (@oxfordradcliffe) took delivery of a 7 Tesla MRI scanner, the most powerful in the country. There was a Family Fun Day in the JR grounds on Saturday to raise funds for the JR and Horton A&E departments.

Problems associated with language school students surfaced with coverage on local TV, letters in the papers, posts on the e-democracy forum and moans on twitter. I blogged about it too.

And talking about students in Headington (tenuous link of the week), it emerged that Headington School’s wealthiest alumna will be spending the coming academic year in Oxford. Yes, Emma Watson will be a student at Worcester College for a year before returning to Brown University in the USA to complete her Eng Lit degree. Wonder if she needs digs … ?

My favorite Headington-related tweet this week:

Active topics on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum this week:

  • Joint Bus Ticketing Starts 24 July
  • Good homes for used carpet?
  • Headington Car Park site
  • The Cavalier pub
  • Police patrols to tackle anti social behaviour by language students

I try to cover news from the OX3 postcode in Headington and out as far as Barton, Sandhills and Risinghurst (see map). To feed into next week’s summary you can comment on this article, or tweet either with the hashtag #ox3 or @mentioning @TonyOX3.

Science Oxford – future plans

TonyOX3

On Wednesday evening this week I was at Science Oxford (SO), invited to take part in a discussion forum about their plans to open a new science and innovation centre in Oxford. The new centre, to be designed by Foster + Partners, will be on the site of Macclesfield House on New Road next to the Castle Mound.

There were about 20 people taking part, plus some representatives from SO and the market research company they have retained to run the public consultation. It was well organised and lasted three hours (including a refreshment break, thankfully) with a mixture of open discussion, presentation, and group discussions.

SO’s current thinking is for the centre, provisionally called The Magnet, to consist of a number of different areas including a free-to-enter reception/shop/café. Other areas will be aimed at different audiences: under 12s, older schoolchildren etc. A 3D theatre/planetarium on the roof, a roof garden/terrace, and a ‘science live’ gallery are all part of the current mix.

I think this is a really exciting project, not least because I like Norman Foster’s work and am looking forward to having a major Foster building in Oxford. I came away from the discussions feeling optimistic, but there was a general consensus about the problems that will have to be overcome.

First, ‘science’ is such a vast concept that the centre will inevitably be highly selective in what it can show. It will be important that they change their content regularly. People also felt it was important that the centre should explain ‘what science is’, a highly successful way of looking at the world, asking and solving problems about how everything works.

Another common view was that the centre shouldn’t just be aimed at children and young people. What most of those present wanted was the opportunity to hear about current research from the people actually doing it. Whenever I’ve had the chance to do this it’s always been interesting and exciting. Another point was about accessibility – not just for people with disabilities but also recognising that there are many working people who can only enjoy and benefit from a centre like this in the evenings.

Lastly there was a plea that the centre shouldn’t rely entirely on computerised on-screen and interactive demonstrations to get its message across. Adults of a certain age can still be intrigued by pressing buttons and seeing things flash up on a screen, but most children are now completely used to this and are not necessarily impressed or interested. Having real live people on hand to explain things and answer questions would be a great feature.

There were plenty of other things covered but these are probably the most common thoughts that came out. An interesting and successful evening.